A Nebraska based sixth generation farmer is encouraging fellow farmers to share their story of how modern agriculture is improving the planet and people's lives.
Bridging the Gap Between Rural and Urban Populations was among the topics discussed last week as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2018.
Trent Loos, a sixth generation farmer with Loos Tales from the Farm, says Loos Tales started 20 years ago when he and his wife, like so many farm families, recognized the consumers and the kids don't know where their food comes from and they accepted the challenge of finding ways to tell their story.
Clip-Trent Loos-Loos Tales from the Farm:
In 2018 we learn telling our story isn't getting it done.
We need to tell the story of how we improve the planet and improve human lives around the world by what we do on farms and ranches all throughout North America particularly the United States and Canada.
The great untold story to me is how efficient modern food production is.
We lose between one million and two million acres of prime farmland each year in the United States to concrete, condos and consumers and we outpace that loss.
In 1900 it required five acres of land to produce enough food to feed one person for a year.
Today, 2018 and beyond, it takes less than a third of an acre to produce the same amount of food to feed one person for a year.
We always talk about efficiencies but until you put it in some numbers that people can visualize they don't understand what we're talking about.
People don't know what it is that we've accomplished because we've been very quiet in getting that done.
I accept that challenge to educate people about our life experiences and how it improves the planet and improves other human lives but I also challenge my audience to be better advocates themselves.
Loos says the truth of the matter is that, if any business outside of farming achieved a technological advancement that made that significant of an improvement in overall efficiency, major media wouldn't stop talking about it.
Source : farmscape